The National Centre

for Post-Qualifying
Social Work and
Professional Practice

Findings

Service
Improvement
Projects
Supporting social work and health practitioners to improve
services one setting and one service provider at a time.
The improvement of services, for the people we
serve, is at the heart of professional practice. This
is why we have designed a Masters degree to
include a focus on service improvement.

The Service Improvement journey at BU is

split into two Masters degree level units:
PSIP and SIP.

PSIP stands for Preparing for your Service

Improvement Project. Successful completion of
PSIP is a pre-requisite for moving on to the SIP
unit. It allows practitioners to develop a service
improvement proposal over a period of about 5
months and is primarily about THINKING.

SIP stands for Service Improvement Project

and is primarily about DOING or implementing

the proposal in practice. This project is based on a
SIP completed in 2015.

The National Centre for

Post-Qualifying Social Work
and Professional Practice
(NCPQSWPP)
Professional education at the National Centre
for Post-Qualifying Social Work and Professional
Practice is centred on a commitment, passion
and dedication to develop healthcare and social
work practice.
We believe that by improving the quality of
services through partnering with practitioners
and employers across the health and social care
arena we make a vital contribution to society in
general and vulnerable people in particular.
Over 10,000 practitioners have successfully
undertaken our programmes since the year
2000 and we have won a total of 9 prestigious
teaching awards during this time.
Visit us at: www.ncpqsw.com

Practitioners identified problems in the

following areas:
1. Lack of confidence in identifying agencies
that could offer appropriate support and
signposting.
2. Limited knowledge in detailed safety
planning work.
3. Process and procedures constrain personcentred work.

Service Improvement/
Changes

Domestic abuse:
improving practitioner
confidence and personcentred practice
Author: Ros Richards
Bournemouth Borough Council and Dorset Healthcare

Context and rationale

Aim

The starting point of this project was

critical reflection of my own practice as
a social worker. I suspected that my own
lack of confidence engaging with clients
who presented with experiences of
domestic abuse might also be common for
colleagues.
Practitioners in Community Mental Health
Teams (CMHTs) are required to undertake
safeguarding enquiries where harm has
occurred through domestic abuse.

The aim of this project was, therefore,

to improve practitioner confidence
and enable person-centred practice, in
safeguarding with people experiencing
domestic abuse who are under the care
of the CMHT.

The identified problem

The work of safeguarding adults in cases
of domestic violence has become processdriven, rather than meeting the individual
needs of clients.
A lack of confidence for some practitioners
in responding to client needs and
understanding resources available to
support clients.

For more information, please visit us at www.ncpqsw.com or phone 01202 964765

Methods
My enquiry focused on identifying
barriers to effective working in
safeguarding people experiencing
domestic abuse and what might help
improve outcomes.
I produced a scoping questionnaire to
benchmark initial views followed by a
focus group to explore themes in more
detail.

Findings 1 and 2 above supported the

implementation of a multi-agency, resource
awareness and professional networking
session.
CMHT practitioners and partner agencies
were invited to an information sharing
session on domestic abuse.
A rating scale allowed practitioners to
assess their levels of confidence before and
after the session.
Practitioners perceived their confidence
increasing by over 80% (relative %) as
a result of the session in identifying
community resources and in their
knowledge of the roles of partner agencies.

Critical reflection
There is a pathway for further development
of this project, in that measuring the impact
of applied learning needs to happen over a
longer period of time.
The immediate feedback about increased
confidence from the session is positive.
The informal but interactive learning
environment appeared key; modes
of learning are important in order to
effectively apply learning to practice (Ripfa
2012).
In times of economic challenge, learning
opportunities need to provide a clear
platform for the application of learned skills
and knowledge to practice and not be a
passive, isolated experience (Brookes et al.
2013).

References
Brookes, et al., 2013. Personalisation and innovation in a cold
financial climate. British Journal of Social Work, 45, 86-103.
Ripfa (Research in Practice for Adults), 2012. How to get
learning into practice: Practice Tool. Totnes: Ripfa/Dartington.